Viviane Sassen

Umbra (I)

Viviane Sassen's photographic series Umbra, titled after the Latin word for shadow, was commissioned by the Nederlands Fotomuseum. In this unusual publication, consisting of a folder containing a booklet of poems by Maria Barnas and 11 single prints by Sassen, we are led through a series of imaginative takes on the idea of the shadow as a metaphor for the anxiety and desire, memories and expectations, imagination and illusion that manifest in the human psyche. Throughout the series, the ambiguity between realism and abstraction which is characteristic of her work emerges in the play of light, shadow and colour, the cropping of the images and interventions on the prints. A mysterious quality is cast on the seemingly everyday objects and situations portrayed.